Hippie biker is really undercover CEO

These are undated courtesy photos of Steve Greenbaum, founder and CEO of PostNet. On the left is how he appeared for the show “Undercover Boss” when he visited a Las Vegas franchise, on the right is how he looks in his daily life.

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Jim and Tina Liaos thought they were hiring a former motorcycle shop owner named Brad as part of a television show in which he was competing to raise startup money for his own business.

"He looked like a long-haired hippie biker type of guy," said Tina Liaos, who with her husband runs a Las Vegas PostNet franchise that offers printing and shipping services for small businesses.

"He looked right out of the 1970s," Jim Liaos said.

The hair wasn't real, and neither was his name. The man was Steve Greenbaum, CEO and founder of PostNet. The television show was "Undercover Boss." The episode airs at 8 p.m. Friday.

Greenbaum founded PostNet 19 years ago in Las Vegas with partner Brian Spindel. The company, now based in Denver, has 700 franchises. The Liaos' store at 7320 S. Rainbow Blvd. is one of 19 across the valley.

The Liaoses had seen Greenbaum before at a company convention, but his disguise fooled them.

"He looked nothing like we'd seen him," Jim Liaos said.

Greenbaum worked in disguise at PostNet shops across the country. He designed marketing materials, worked in outside sales and performed other tasks for franchise owners.

“I came away with an incredible sense of pride in our company and a renewed appreciation for those on the front lines of our business every day," Greenbaum said in a statement. "It was an exhilarating and humbling experience, both personally and professionally.”

The Liaoses, meanwhile, said they already have seen benefits from the attention generated by commercials promoting the show. They also received a reward from Greenbaum but agreed to keep it a secret until the show airs.

"The reward we got will help us in the future," Jim Liaos said.

The couple, who have run the franchise for more than five years, said they'll watch the show at home with family and friends.

This isn't the first time "Undercover Boss" has visited Las Vegas. Scott Sibella, president of MGM Grand, appeared on the show last year.

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I am waiting for the reality show, Undercover Horrible Boss.

At the end of any given episode of Undercover Boss, the boss reveals his or her true identity, gives each employee $10,000, and issues them new brooms and mops to replace the worn-out ones they previously had to use because the company was too cheap to buy them new ones.

On Undercover Horrible Boss, the boss, maybe Donald Trump or Mitt Romney, will come on at the end and announce that everyone is fired (as soon as they train their foreign replacements), the jobs are all being sent to China, the employees will all be sued for bogus wage overpayments, and their unemployment claims contested for no reason.

People really buy this idea that a camera crew, boom man following a "regular" worker is reality? It would take me 5 minutes to figure out if this was a set-up with the CEO. The internet allows immense information gathering. You'd have to be a fool to be duped.